A method and apparatus for the stimulation of biological processes related to cellular activity, particularly for promoting the healing of lesions on the body surface i.e. wounds, ulcers and various epithelial injuries.
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for the stimulation of biological processes related to cellular activity, particularly for promoting the healing of lesions on the body-surface i.e. wounds, ulcers and various epithelial injuries, which is based upon the use of the biostimulating effect of light.
The irradiation of a living surface with laser light has, as it is widely known, a biostimulating effect. The experiments in this field have been conducted since 1967 under the guidance of professor Endre Mester and the initially modest presumptions have been broadly proven since that time. The healing effect of the treatment with laser light has already a very broad literature. The summary of experiences is included among other publications e.g. in the work of professor Endre Mester: "Laser Application in Promoting of Wound-Healing", published in the 1980 issue of the "Laser in Medicine" (edited by H. K. Koebner, Wiley-Interscience Publ. 1980.). Another work by professor Endre Mester: "Der Laser" can also be regarded as a summary of his experiences (edited by K. Dinstl and P. L. Fischer, Springer-Verlag, 1981.). It should be noted that in contrast to the laser light, no other treatments carried out by natural or artificial light have manifested any biostimulating effect thus far.
The healing effect of the laser light becomes apparent mainly in the healing of refractory wounds and ulcers. It is well known that such lingering ulcers develop fairly frequently on aged people suffering from cardiovascular troubles. Refractory bed-sores also tend to develop as a consequence of prolonged decubitus.
In the course of treatment with laser light, the laser light is directed onto the wound by means of a prism, a mirror or a fibre-optic and the entire surface of the wound is scanned by the correspondingly deflected beam. The specific intensity of the beam is between 20-150 mW/cm.sup.2, and the maximum energy density is set to be about 4 J/cm.sup.2. The treatment is usually recurrent, performed generally twice a week and the average time of healing is estimated to be about 10-12 weeks.
There are a great number of mutually contradictory theories, attempting to explain the biostimulating effect of the laser light, however, none of these could provide a scientifically acceptable explanation.
On the basis of the published results laser light would have a wide field of application, however, practical experiences show that it did not come into general use to an extent which it would deserve by its efficiency.
There are several reasons that slow down the wide scale acceptance of this treatment, one of which might be that the design of continuously operating lasers providing the required output and beam diameter is rather complicated and besides the sophisticated technical environment they also require special skills during manufacture.